Drop Your Net

Mark 1: 14-20

January 25, 2015

Jesus calls the disciples,

And tells them to follow him right in the middle of work.

Right in the middle of their fishing day,
Fishing was not a relaxing hobby.
Their safety, their relatively quiet life,

He tells them to put down their whatever they’re doing and follow him.

Imagine being at your job, or doing whatever you do in your daily life

and being asked to drop it all.

Would you do it?

Do you feel you could do it?

What would hold you back from interrupting your life?

Maybe we don’t even have to consider

leaving everything behind like the disciples did.

Do you even feel like if you were called,

that you could even change your

patterns, your habits, your thought processes,

 your expectations, your plans for the future?

Could you drop those things to follow?

Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John and the others

didn’t seem to even think about it.

They just left everything.

Now we have to remember that in Jesus time,

being a fisherman was different than it is today.

Or a way to live independently as a business owner.

Fishing was a very hard, usually unrewarding jobs.

You didn’t even own your own boat.

Basically, the leader rented a boat from the big, rich boat owners,

you put a net down into the water every day.

And you hoped there were enough fish in it at the end

to pay for the boat and the little pay your crew asked for.

Maybe there was some left over and you made a little money.

But if there weren’t enough fish, then you owed the boat owners money.

The crew didn’t get paid, you would end up working the next day,

just to pay for your previous days work.

Most fishing people lived in debt.

So maybe giving up their fishing nets was not

that much to give up.

But it was a kind of security. It was known.

It was what they were accustomed to.

It was familiar. Their lives were built around it.

That fishing net was their safety net – as weak as it was.

And that’s often enough to stop people from changing.

My uncle used to tell me:

“If we’re left to our own devices, most people will stay in a pile of poo

because, well, at least it’s warm in there.”

But thankfully, we are not left to our own devices.

We are called by Jesus to do something more.

To be transformed and to help transform the world.

Individually and as a church community.

But how can we pick up a new thing,

when our hands are busy clinging to another thing?

Not all of us are asked to leave our jobs, or our families,

and everything we’ve ever known.

But we are asked to trade in something.

Those things that give us security, but don’t give back to us.

Those things that stand in the way of being what God wants us to be.

Maybe it’s our love of money

Maybe its an addiction to something.

Maybe it’s being alone or isolated.

Maybe we’re asked to give up our free time,

our perceived freedom, or lack of commitment.

Maybe as a church it’s some old programs, some committee meetings.

The way we’ve been doing things for the longest time

Following Jesus requires change.

We have to drop things in order to pick things up.

There is always a trade,

from the known to the unknown.

We talked about Martin Luther King Jr.’s

call to service as Civil Right’s Leader in the 1950’s.

Imagine the things that he was asked to give up:

A quiet private life. His anonymity.

Time as a pastor in a community church.

Time at home with his family and friends.

His safety and the safety of his family.

Eventually, his call cost him his life.

And the black community in Montgomery had to give up things too.

The suffering of segregation was hard,

But to get out of it, they had to trade

the life that they knew.

their free time.

They had to put down what they knew

and venture into the unknown.

Yesterday we were planning a vision for our future.

A lot of visions and plans were talked about

plans for partnering with our community,

for sharing our faith with others,

for focusing outside ourselves rather than inside.

  

These are all great visions. Visions from the Spirit.

Calls from God to follow Jesus and his way.

But to reach those visions, we will have to put down something.

Maybe its some of the things that we currently do,

But it’s about more than that.

We will have to change our ways our habits.

Put aside our old thought patterns,

give away some of our routine,

some of our comfort, we have to put down

some of our old hopes the dreams that we had before

and take up new ones.

We have to put down the known

in order for us to venture into the unknown.

So, what is the net that you need to put down?

What are the nets that we have to put down as a church?

If you are in this room right now,

God has chosen you to do something wonderful in this world.

Jesus has called you to go to places unknown,

by roads that we’re unfamiliar with.

God has called us to put down our nets and follow.

Let’s pray.

Gracious God. Show us the path that Jesus wants us to take.

Help us to put down those things that stand in our way.

Help us to rely on you and not our own devices or plans,

for security. Help us to drop our nets and follow you.

Can You Hear God's Call?

John 1: 43-51

Epiphany 2

January 18, 2015

After reading these stories, I always think,

“wow, the disciples had it easy.”

I mean it was Jesus, actually Jesus that called

them into discipleship.

From all accounts, Jesus had a certain something,

a way with words, a power and energy.

And his message was new and different.

When I was young, the church had been around

for 2000 years and we had Fr. O’Hearn to share it with us,

an older man who was not much for

conversation and would read his sermons

directly from his script without ever looking up.

But even if you have a pastor who does better at the sermon thing,

or better at interpersonal relations,

there are so many options out there now.

So many other things to follow.

So many more exciting, louder, more convincing voices to follow

than anything the church can come up with.

And the message of Jesus has been around for thousands of year.

Sometimes it seems to fall into the background

with all the rest of the noise out there.

So how do we hear the call today?

The call to come to worship, the call to serve,

to forgive, to help someone,

to start a project in God’s name,

To give our money,

to invest our time and energy,

The call to walk in that light that we’ve been given?

  

I’ve heard of some people hearing God’s voice,

like Samuel did in Eli’s house.

it’s a strong and clear call to action in God’s name.

Doing things with the absolute confidence,

knowing what God wants them to do.

But most of us just don’t have that experience.

For the rest of us, the call from God comes in more subtle ways.

Actually boring ways.

- Sometimes it’s a persistent thought that

keeps coming back in our heads.

- Sometimes it’s a nagging feeling in the pit

of our stomach that tells us.

- Sometimes it’s a story that we keep seeing repeatedly

in our conversations, or in the news.

- Sometimes it’s a persistent person that keeps asking

you to do something over and over

until you finally give in and agree to do what they want you to.

- Sometimes it’s the coincidence of circumstances that seems to drag us

to a certain place and time and we can’t avoid doing what

God wants us to do.

These ways might not seem as exciting as lights

or disembodied voices.

But these are just some of the ways that God works in our lives.

To call us to places that we never thought we would go.

This week we celebrate 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A person who certainly did some marvelous things in his short life.

He would change history, change laws,

change the lives of millions of people for years to come.

But his call to this particular 

position of service to God

was not glamorous, beautiful, or stunning.

It was actually some very boring common things that came together.

  

In 1954, Martin Luther King had already received a call from God

to be pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

in Montgomery, Alabama.

By then, the NAACP and unions had been working on the bus situation

for at least five years, trying to find the right person to back and

defend and trying to challenge of the law that

said that black people had to sit in the back of the bus.

In 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested, before her trial,

the organizers needed churches to support the boycott.

E.D. Nixon who was a union leader in Montgomery

and the organizer of the movement,

asked the newest pastor in town Martin Luther King

if he would support the bus boycott with his congregation.

And could they have the first meeting in King’s church.

King said he had to think about it and call him back.

Eventually he said that they would support it

and they could meet there.

After a one day bus boycott,

Nixon met with the Montgomery

clergy to talk about expanding it to all Montgomery.

But the ministers just wanted a low-key boycott that wouldn’t

upset the white power structure.

Nixon was indignant, he pointed out that poor congregations

worked hard to put money into the collection plates to keep

pastors comfortable but when the congregations needed

the clergy to stand up for them,

the comfortable ministers refused to do it.

Nixon threatened to reveal all the ministers cowardice

to the whole black community.

Now we don’t know exactly what happened there in King’s

mind or heart, but that speech by Nixon must have done something.

Martin Luther King spoke up and said that he wasn’t afraid.

  

And that was it.

King was elected as the chair of the committee.

he gave the keynote address at the next meeting

and the leader of the civil rights movement in the US

His call from God came through a phone call for support,

a space usage request, a committee meeting,

an angry speech by a frustrated union organizer,

and being elected to leadership because no one else would do it.

No lights, no disembodied voices necessary.

God’s call to one of the most important leaders

of the 20^th century, came through very practical,

normal, boring, some would even say annoying things.

Now, we may not be the most important

leader of the 21^st century.

We may never make any history books.

But God is calling each one of us to do some great things

in our communities, with the people around us,

We are being called every day to do our part in

making God’s Kingdom here on earth.

And God is calling us through those

normal, practical, even annoying ways.

A phone call, a committee meeting, an angry speech.

but we’re all doing our part to create the kingdom of God,

and God’s call to us happens in much the same way.

normal, practical, even annoying things

can spur us on to do things that

we never thought we could do.

God has seen you.

God has called you by name.

Hear God’s call and see what

great things you and God will do.

Getting into Trouble

Mark 1:4-11

January 11, 2014 

Baptism of Christ

My previous congregation was a physically large,

downtown congregation that would come up first

in most searches of congregations in Austin.

So we would get a lot of calls from people

who were not very affiliated with the congregation

who wanted weddings, funerals, and especially baptisms.

Some people would want their children, usually babies baptized

without ever being at church or not being at church for a long time

So whenever we got these calls, we would ask the parents

why did they want to have their child baptized.

Often times it had something to do with grandparents pressuring them,

but other times, the word “protection” would come up.

Sometimes people thought their child would not go to heaven,

But I remember one specific conversation with

one mother who thought that baptism

would give her child protection from the world.

She said, “you know, like sickness, accidents, getting into trouble.”

I remember the discussion because I regretted what I said.

Now I was not long out of seminary and hadn’t quite learned

how important it was not to just say everything that

popped into my head in every conversation.

And I said to her, “I think if baptism happens right,

it should get your child in more trouble.”

That did not satisfy her or pique her interest at all

and I think the call after that point was pretty brief.

I regretted it because I probably should have

introduced the concept to her slower

and with more discussion,

but, with you all, I still stand by that statement.

Baptism should get us into trouble, not out of it.

As Lutherans, we stress the promise,

the forgiveness, the eternal life, of baptism,

and I believe those heartily,

But sometimes we stress it so much that we

omit the part about the

invitation of baptism, the challenge, the danger.

Baptism is a promise,

and it’s also a call to DO something in your lifetime.

Sometimes crazy things.

When Jesus was baptized by John,

it was in the wilderness, in an open river,

The Baptism, Andre Miller

with the rushing water around him,

not safe in a church with a font.

It’s outside where anything can happen and anyone can see.

Maybe there is something to that.

Because immediately after he’s baptized -

after he’s blessed by God and called the beloved and given his promise,

he’s chased deeper into the wilderness

without food, water, or protection

to be tempted by the devil.

And then right from there

he goes and starts his public ministry.

Trouble.

And in the same way,

Baptism has driven people to do some crazy things too,

it’s caused Paul to leave his life as a Pharisee

and start churches around the world,

it caused Martin Luther to speak up against

the Roman Catholic church at a time when

that was punishable by death.

It drove Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead

the civil rights movement in America.

 

It drives people to leave their homes

and work with strangers in poverty.

It drives doctors and nurses to risk their own lives

and help people with Ebola in West Africa.

It drives us to work in food pantries, to help homeless people,

clean up people’s lawns, make music, go to seminary,

to give our money away, to pray, to worship,

to join in community, to be on council…

Trouble.

Baptism is not just a comforting end, it’s a risky beginning.

It’s not some kind of protection from this earthly life,

it’s an invitation to really get involved in this earthly life

With the knowledge that wherever we find ourselves

God will be there.

The writer Annie Dillard suggests that we should

wear crash helmets and life preservers to baptisms.

Another pastor suggested that we shouldn’t issue

certificates with baptisms, but warnings.

In our baptism God takes us, loves us,

and whispers in our ear,

God gives us the courage to go where we didn’t think we could.

The promise of baptism is forgiveness, love, and eternal life.

That is the light we are given, nothing can take it away.

And the call of our baptism to walk in that light every day.